Chess game

ABSTRACT

A chess game variant includes a wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area and that may be introduced on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition, for example after an officer other than the king is captured for a first time. The movement ability of the wildcard piece may be randomly determined from the movement abilities of other officers, including any non-standard pieces used in the game. A non-standard piece may also be included in the chess game, for example a hybrid piece having a movement ability that is a hybrid of a queen and a knight where the hybrid piece can move in any direction and jump over other pieces but whose movement is restricted to no more than three spaces.

FIELD

This application relates to games, specifically to chess game variants.

BACKGROUND

Chess is a strategy game that is believed to have been known since at least the 6^(th) century. The game underwent revisions in 13^(th) century Europe, and the most popular modern form of the game is believed to have evolved in the 15^(th) century. Today, standard internationally accepted rules for chess are governed by the World Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Echecs, FIDE) and published as “The Laws of Chess” at http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=124&view=article, the contents of the entirety of which are herein incorporated by this reference.

The standard game of chess, while challenging, may lose the interest of players over time. Therefore, there remains a need for chess variants having unique and interesting variations to provide further challenges for the players.

SUMMARY

There is provided a chess game comprising an apparatus for displaying at least two sets of chess pieces and a playing area delineated into an array of 100 spaces which the pieces occupy or move through, each set of pieces comprising ten pawns and eleven officers, the officers including a king, wherein two of the officers are non-standard pieces that start play on the playing area, the two non-standard pieces both having a movement ability permitting movement of three spaces along a rank or file or two spaces along a diagonal in any one move and permitting jumping over intervening pieces, and wherein one of the officers is a wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area and may be introduced on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king by a player upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition, the wildcard piece having a randomly determined movement ability.

There is further provided a chess game comprising an apparatus for displaying at least two sets of chess pieces and a playing area delineated into an array of spaces which the pieces occupy or move through, each set of pieces comprising a plurality of pawns and a plurality of officers, the officers including a king, wherein at least one of the pieces in each set is a wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area and may be introduced on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king by a player upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition, the wildcard piece having a randomly determined movement ability.

There is further provided a method of playing a chess game comprising: arranging at least two sets of chess pieces on a playing area delineated into an array of spaces which the pieces occupy or move through, each set of pieces comprising a plurality of pawns and a plurality of officers, the officers including a king; providing at least one wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area; introducing the wildcard piece on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king by a player upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition; and, randomly determining a movement ability of the wildcard piece.

There is provided a chess game comprising an apparatus for displaying at least two sets of chess pieces and a playing area delineated into an array of spaces which the pieces occupy or move through, each set of pieces comprising a plurality of pawns and a plurality of officers, wherein at least one of the officers in each set is a non-standard piece that starts play on the playing area, the non-standard piece having a movement ability permitting movement along a rank or file up to a maximum of three spaces or along a diagonal up to a maximum of two spaces and permitting jumping over intervening pieces.

A method of playing a chess game comprising arranging at least two sets of chess pieces on a playing area delineated into an array of spaces which the pieces occupy or move through, each set of pieces comprising a plurality of pawns and a plurality of officers, wherein at least one of the officers in each set is a non-standard piece that starts play on the playing area, the non-standard piece having a movement ability permitting movement along a rank or file up to a maximum of three spaces or along a diagonal up to a maximum of two spaces and permitting jumping over intervening pieces.

The game comprises a playing area delineated into an array of spaces which the pieces occupy or move through. The array may be of any suitable size depending on the number of pieces in the game. Preferably the playing area comprises a number of spaces and a number of starting pieces on the playing area such that there are at least twice as many spaces as starting pieces. In a preferred embodiment, the playing area comprises 100 spaces. The array may comprise any suitable arrangement of spaces. Preferably, the array is set up as a grid whereby edge spaces define edges of the playing area surrounding interior spaces. The playing area may be of any shape, for example irregular, polygonal (e.g. square, rectangular, pentagonal, hexagonal), ellispsoidal or circular. A square or rectangular playing area is preferred. The spaces may be of any shape, for example irregular, polygonal (e.g. square, rectangular, pentagonal, hexagonal), ellispsoidal or circular. Square or rectangular spaces are preferred. In a preferred embodiment, the spaces are square or rectangular and the playing area is square or rectangular. In one embodiment, the playing area is delineated into a square or rectangular 8×8 array of square or rectangular spaces to provide 64 spaces in the playing area (e.g. a standard chess board), which is especially useful if only the wildcard piece is used. In another embodiment, the playing area is delineated into a square or rectangular 10×10 array of square or rectangular spaces to provide 100 spaces in the playing area, which is especially useful if two non-standard pieces are used.

The game comprises at least two sets of chess pieces. Each set is played by a separate player, either really or notionally, and each set is preferably distinguishable from the other set or sets, for example by color, shape, an associated signifier or some combination thereof. In some embodiments, there may be more than two sets of pieces, for example three, four or five sets of pieces, so that more than two players may play in the same game. Preferably, the game comprises two sets of pieces. Each set of pieces preferably comprises a same number and type of pieces, although in some variants, one set of pieces may comprise more or fewer pieces or pieces of different types to disadvantage one player over another. Each set of pieces comprises a king or equivalent piece. The king has the same properties as the king in standard chess. Each set of pieces preferably comprises other standard chess pieces (e.g. pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, and a queen) or equivalents thereof having the same properties as those in standard chess. Preferably, each set comprises a king, a queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks and at least eight pawns. The king, queen, bishops, knights and rooks are termed “officers”. The starting pieces comprise all of the pawns and the king, queen, bishops, knights and rooks. Preferably, each set of pieces comprises at least sixteen starting pieces and the at least one wildcard piece that starts off the playing area.

Each set of pieces may comprise at least one wildcard piece, preferably one wildcard piece. The wildcard piece is also considered to be an officer. The wildcard piece starts play off the playing area and may be introduced to the playing area in a space adjacent the king by a player upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition. The pre-defined condition may be, for example, when an officer other than the king is captured for a first time or any other gameplay-related event. For clarity, the king adjacent to which the wildcard piece may be introduced is a player's own king and not a king of another player. Adjacent spaces include spaces that are horizontal, vertical or diagonal to the king, i.e. spaces that touch the space occupied by the king. The player may bring the wildcard piece on to the playing area at any time after the pre-defined condition occurs, or the player may have a pre-determined number of moves in which to introduce the wildcard piece. Preferably, the player may introduce the wildcard piece on to the playing area at any time after the pre-defined condition occurs.

Preferably the wildcard piece may be introduced only once and may not be re-introduced after having been captured, although some variants may permit re-introducing a captured wildcard piece multiple times. In the event that reintroduction of the wildcard piece is permitted, such reintroduction may occur upon re-occurrence of the pre-defined condition, for example after another of the player's officers other than the king is captured, or some other pre-defined condition. In one embodiment, players may have an unlimited number of opportunities to reintroduce their wildcard pieces provided the pre-defined condition is met, whereas in another embodiment the wildcard pieces may only be introduced until all of the possible randomly determined movement abilities have been used up.

Introducing the wildcard piece to the playing area is preferably a move ending the player's turn, although some variants may permit the introduction of the wildcard piece and permit a separate move in the same turn. If another player's piece is on a space adjacent to the king, the wildcard piece may be introduced into that space thereby capturing the other player's piece. In one embodiment, introducing the wildcard piece on to the playing area may not be done to capture another player's piece that has the king in “check” or to block a “check” of the king by another player's piece remote from the king. In another embodiment, introducing the wildcard piece on to the playing area may be done to capture another player's piece that has the king in “check” or to block a “check” of the king by another player's piece remote from the king. In another embodiment, capturing another player's piece upon introduction of the wildcard requires revealing the randomly determined movement ability of the wildcard piece.

When introduced on to the playing area, the wildcard piece receives a randomly determined movement ability. The movement ability may be randomly selected from any pre-determined list of choices and does not change for the remainder of the game. The list of choices may include, for example, two or more of the standard movement abilities of the king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, pawn and any one or more other non-standard movement abilities. Preferably, the wildcard cannot have the standard movement ability of the king. In one embodiment, the list of choices includes at least one non-standard movement ability. The non-standard movement ability may be any movement ability, for example a movement ability of a hybrid piece as described below or even an inability to move at all. If the wildcard piece is unable to move, the wildcard piece may also possess immunity to being captured, thereby becoming an effective blocker. In another embodiment, the list of choices comprises the standard movement abilities of the rook and bishop and at least one non-standard movement ability. In another embodiment, the list of choices comprises the standard movement abilities of the rook, bishop and knight and at least one non-standard movement ability. In another embodiment, the list of choices comprises the standard movement abilities of the queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn and at least one non-standard movement ability.

In one embodiment, once the movement ability is randomly selected for a player's wildcard piece, that movement ability is no longer available to any other player's wildcard piece. In another embodiment, selection of the movement ability for one player's wildcard piece does not preclude selection of the same movement ability for another player's wildcard piece.

In a preferred embodiment, only the player introducing the wildcard piece on to the playing area is initially privy to the wildcard piece's movement ability. However, such initial privacy may not apply should the introduction of the wildcard piece result in the immediate capture of another player's piece adjacent to the king, in which case, the movement ability of the wildcard piece is revealed immediately. Further, the movement ability of the wildcard piece is revealed if the wildcard piece is used to capture another player's piece or should the player announce a “checkmate” involving use of the wildcard piece. The wildcard piece can be captured just like any other piece and, in one embodiment, upon capture, the movement ability of the wildcard piece is revealed to all players.

It may be advantageous to a player to keep the movement ability of the wildcard piece a secret for as long as possible. In one embodiment, if the wildcard piece places another player's king in “check” while the movement ability of the wildcard piece remains unrevealed, “check” does not have to be called and the other players king is unknowingly in “check”, whereupon if the other players next move does not take the king out of “check”, the wildcard piece can then capture the other players king ending the game for the other player. If a player unknowingly places his/her own king in “check” by another player's wildcard piece, the player's king may then be captured by the other players wildcard piece on the other players next turn thereby ending the game for the player.

Any suitable method of randomly determining the movement ability of the wildcard piece may be used, for example a die roll, a random generator on a computer, blindly selecting a token and the like. Any suitable name may be given to the wildcard piece, for example the Merlin™.

Each set of pieces may comprise one or more non-standard pieces instead of or in addition to the wildcard piece. If two or more non-standard pieces are used, the non-standard pieces may be the same or different. In a particularly preferred embodiment, each set of pieces may comprise one or more, preferably two, hybrid pieces having a non-standard movement ability that is a hybrid of the movement abilities of two or more standard chess pieces. In one embodiment, the movement ability of the hybrid piece is a hybrid of the queen and the knight by which the hybrid piece may move in any direction (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) up to a maximum of three spaces and may jump over intervening pieces. More preferably, movement of the hybrid piece along a rank or file is limited to no more than three spaces and movement along a diagonal is limited to no more than two spaces. Even more preferably, movement of the hybrid piece along a rank or file must be three spaces (not one or two) and along a diagonal must be two spaces (not one), thereby only emulating movement of a knight but in a straight line. As is usual in standard chess, movement of the hybrid piece cannot terminate on a space that is already occupied by a piece of the same player. The hybrid piece is an officer and is preferably a starting piece. Any suitable name may be given to the hybrid piece, for example the Longbow™.

When wildcard pieces are used, capture of a player's hybrid piece also triggers the ability of the player to introduce the wildcard piece on to the playing area. Further, the movement ability of the hybrid piece may be included in the list of choices for the movement ability of the wildcard piece. Because the hybrid piece may have a movement ability that can emulate other pieces, e.g. the queen, rook, bishop, knight or pawn, the exact nature of the wildcard piece can be kept a secret for an extended period of time because it may not be clear to the other player or players whether the wildcard piece has the movement ability of the standard piece or the hybrid piece.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the chess game has at least two sets of pieces, each set comprising all of the standard chess pieces plus two extra pawns, two hybrid pieces and one wildcard piece for a total of 21 pieces. In an even more preferred embodiment, the chess game has two sets of pieces and the playing area comprises a 10×10 array of spaces for a total of 100 spaces in 10 ranks and 10 files. An initial configuration of the pieces on the playing area may comprise a row of 10 pawns on a player's second rank and a row of officers on the first rank. The officers may be positioned as in standard chess except that the hybrid pieces are between two other officers, preferably one between a first bishop and the king and the other between a second bishop and the queen. As previously indicated, the wildcard piece starts the game off the playing area so each player starts with 20 pieces on the playing area, 10 officers and 10 pawns.

“Check-mate” may be attained in the standard manner or as described above in connection with the wildcard piece. “Stale-mate” may be attained in the standard manner, or optionally if a player is only left with the king and can avoid “check-mate” for twenty moves. Further, “stale-mate” may arise from a unique situation where the player's only move may expose the player's king to a threat from an opponent's wildcard piece. This unique situation arises when the player has introduced the player's wildcard piece on to the playing area and it is possible to deduce the identity of the opponent's wildcard piece. In such a situation, when it is the player's turn to play and the player's king is not in “check”, but it is impossible for the player to make any move without placing the player's king in “check” from the opponent's wildcard piece or other of the opponent's pieces, then the player may reveal the identity of the player's own wildcard piece and declare a “stale-mate”. However, if the opponent challenges the declaration of “stale-mate”, the player must explicate the line of reasoning that allowed the player to deduce the identity of the opponent's wildcard piece, and if the player incorrectly deduced the identity of the opponent's wildcard piece, the player automatically loses the game.

Some examples of lines of reasoning for deducing the identity of a wildcard piece may be as follows. In one example, if the player has introduced the player's wildcard piece on to the playing area, the player may know what the identity of the opponent's wildcard piece cannot be. If the opponent has moved the opponent's wildcard piece the player has gained knowledge of what the opponent's wildcard piece may be. Based on the identity of the player's wildcard piece and the known movement ability of the opponent's wildcard piece, a process of elimination may reveal that the opponent's wildcard piece may have only one possible identity out of all the possibilities. In a second example, if the opponent has moved the opponent's wildcard piece in such a way such that the opponent's wildcard piece must be only one of the possible pieces, then the identity of the opponent's wildcard piece can be deduced. By deducing the identity of a wildcard piece, the wildcard piece is considered to have been revealed. Once the identity of the wildcard piece has been revealed, the unrevealed “checkmate” no longer applies and the player can declare a “stale-mate”.

Optionally, a winner may be resolved from a “stale-mate” by adding the value of all remaining pieces for each player with the player having the most value in pieces being declared the winner. The pieces may be valued as follows: pawn=1; knight=3, bishop=3, rook=5, hybrid piece=4, wildcard piece=7, queen=9. In the event that two players have the same highest piece value, a winner may be resolved randomly, for example by a coin toss.

Optionally, other rules variants may be introduced for interest or to accommodate the number of pieces and the size of the playing area. For example, pawns may be permitted to move one, two or three spaces forward in their first move rather than just one or two in order to be able to cover the distance across a larger playing area more quickly, if desired. En passant may or may not apply in the game as desired. Where en passant applies, an attacking pawn may execute the en passant maneuver if a defending pawn has moved two or three spaces forward during the defending pawn's first move. The attacking pawn must execute en passant in the turn immediately following the turn in which the defending pawn moved the two or three spaces.

Castling may involve any one or combination of a number of different variations. For example, castling may not be permitted at all. Castling may be permitted and involve any permutation of a rook and the king translating directly towards each other and the rook hopping over the king or the king hopping over the rook. For example, a rook may translate all the way to the king and the king hops over the rook or the king may translate all the way to a rook and the rook hops over the king. Castling may only be permitted if both the rook and king have not previously moved or may be permitted if one or both the rook and the king have previously moved as long as the rook and king are collinear (i.e. on the same rank or file). Castling along a file may be permitted in addition to or instead of castling along a rank.

The spaces of the playing area may be delineated by color or shading and playing area set up so that a darker space is at a bottom right corner of the playing area. The pieces may be distinguished by the standard black and white, but the player playing black pieces may be permitted to start play. Where light and dark spaces and light and dark pieces are used, the light queen may start on a light space and the dark queen on a dark space. Other than the variations described herein, the chess game follows standard chess rules, or any other compatible rule variants if desired.

The chess game comprises an apparatus for displaying the pieces and the playing area. In one embodiment, the apparatus may comprise physical chess pieces and a game surface comprising the array of spaces. The game surface may be a board, a table, a floor, a wall or any other surface that may support the pieces. In another embodiment, the apparatus may comprise a computer, an output device and an input device, the computer comprising a microprocessor for controlling operations and a non-transient electronic storage medium for storing information about the pieces and the playing area, and/or for storing computer executable code for carrying out instructions for implementing the method. The computer may further comprise a transient memory (e.g. random access memory (RAM)) accessible to the microprocessor while executing the code. A plurality of computer-based apparatuses may be connected to one another over a computer network system and geographically distributed. One or more of the computer-based apparatuses in the computer network system may comprise a microprocessor for controlling operations and a non-transient electronic storage medium for storing information about the pieces and the playing area, and/or for storing computer executable code for carrying out instructions for implementing the method, and the computer-based apparatuses in the network may interact so that the chess game may be played from remote locations. The output device may be a monitor, a printer, a device that interfaces with a remote output device or the like. The input device may be a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a device that interfaces with a remote input device or the like. With a computer, the pieces and playing area may be a graphical representation displayed in the output device. The input and/or output device may comprise physical chess pieces and/or a physical game surface comprising the array of spaces. The pieces may be movable manually in order to provide an electronic indication to the computer or in accordance with an electronic indication provided from the computer. In all embodiments, the pieces may be provided with any suitably distinguishing shape, color or other feature to distinguish each type of piece. There is also provided a computer readable non-transient storage medium having computer readable code stored thereon for executing computer executable instructions for carrying out the method.

Further features will be described or will become apparent in the course of the following detailed description. It should be understood that each feature described herein may be utilized in any combination with any one or more of the other described features, and that each feature does not necessarily rely on the presence of another feature except where evident to one of skill in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For clearer understanding, preferred embodiments will now be described in detail by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts a chess board comprising a 10×10 square array of squares with chess pieces arranged in a starting position;

FIG. 2 depicts a 10×10 chess board showing a range of movement for a hybrid chess piece (L) and eight possible squares around a king (K) into which a wildcard piece (M) may be introduced;

FIG. 3 depicts a 10×10 chess board illustrating castling king side, castling queen side and initial pawn movements; and,

FIG. 4 depicts a 10×10 chess board illustrating en passant maneuvers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As used herein, the term “standard” when used in the context of chess games and their components refers to the standard internationally accepted rules for chess governed by the World Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Echecs, FIDE) and published as the FIDE Laws of Chess.

When describing the features of pieces of one color herein, the same description is applicable to pieces of another color.

Referring to FIG. 1, one embodiment of a chess game is illustrated in which a chess board 100 comprises a square 10×10 array of square spaces arranged in a grid. The chess board 100 has ten ranks labelled 1-10 and ten files labelled a-j. Two sets of chess pieces are shown in their starting positions, where R=rook, Kn=knight, B=bishop, L=Longbow™, K=king, Q=queen, P=pawn and M=Merlin™. “Black” pieces are at the top of FIG. 1 and are shown in italicized letters. “White” pieces are at the bottom of FIG. 1 and are shown in non-italicized letters. The rooks, knights, bishop, queens, kings and pawns are all standard chess pieces with standard properties including movement. The standard pieces start in standard positions except that the ten files a-j permit the positioning of two extra pieces on black's back rank 10 and two extra pieces on white's back rank 1. These extra pieces are the Longbow™, two of which (one of each color) are positioned between the kings and the bishops and two of which (one of each color) are positioned between the queens and the bishops. At the beginning of the game, the Merlin™ is positioned off the chess board 100. The game proceeds in the standard manner except that black moves first and a pawn may be moved forward by 1, 2 or 3 squares in its file on the pawn's first move. A pawn that has already moved may subsequently only move one square in a given turn.

As the game proceeds, a player may have occasion to move a Longbow™ Referring to FIG. 2, all possible movements of the white Longbow™ L from an interior square are shown. The white Longbow™ L attacks eight possible squares. The white Longbow™ L as shown in square d7 may move 3 squares vertically in file d in either direction terminating at x in square d10 or d4. Thus, the white Longbow™ L can attack two different squares in file d. The white Longbow™ L may alternatively move 3 squares horizontally in rank 7 in either direction terminating at x in square a7 or g7. Thus, the white Longbow™ L can attack two different squares in rank 7. Alternatively, the white Longbow™ L can move 2 squares along either diagonal in either direction terminating at x in square b9, b5, f5 or f9. Thus, the white Longbow™ L can attack four different squares along the diagonals. The white Longbow™ L is not impeded by intervening pieces, whether of the same color or not, as the white Longbow™ L is permitted to jump over pieces in its path. However, the white Longbow™ L cannot terminate its movement in a square occupied by a piece of the same color. If the white Longbow™ L terminates its movement in a square occupied by a piece of the opposing color, that piece of the opposing color is captured.

As the game proceeds, a player, for example the player playing white, may lose his/her first officer. The officer captured may be a rook R, a knight Kn, a bishop B, a Longbow™ L or the queen Q, which are all starting pieces starting in the back rank as shown in FIG. 1. As a move at any of the player's moves after losing the first officer, the player playing the white pieces may introduce the white Merlin™ M on to the board 100. Referring to FIG. 2, the white Merlin™ M may be first introduced on to the board 100 potentially in any of the eight squares h4, i4, j4, j3, j2, i2, h2 or h3 adjacent to the white king K in square i3. However, the white Merlin™ M cannot be introduced into a square occupied by a piece of the same color. Therefore, because the white pawn P occupies the square i4 adjacent to the white king K, the white Merlin™ M cannot be introduced into square i4. The white Merlin™ M can be introduced into a square occupied by a piece of the opposing color, for example the black knight Kn in square h4, thereby capturing the piece of the opposing color. However, if a piece of the opposing color in a square adjacent to the white king K has the white king K in “check”, for example the black bishop B in square j4, the white Merlin™ M cannot be introduced into square j4. Further, if the white king K is in “check” from a piece of opposing color remote from the white king K, for example the black rook R in square f3, the white Merlin™ M cannot be introduced in square h3 to block the “check”. In fact, as long as the white king K is in “check”, the white Merlin™ M cannot be introduced at all since the player has the obligation to counter the “check” before introducing the white Merlin™ M on to the board 100. Thus, the white Merlin™ M can only be introduced on to the board 100 if it is white's turn to play, white has had at least one of its officers captured, white's king K is not in check and white's king K is not completely surrounded in adjacent squares by white pieces. As long as these requirements are met, the white Merlin™ M can be introduced at any time. In an alternate embodiment, the prohibition of introducing the Merlin™ M while the king is in check may be waived, in which case the Merlin™ M could be, for example, introduced in square h3 to block the “check” from the black rook R in square f3 or introduced in square j4 to capture black bishop B in square j4.

When the Merlin™ is introduced on to the board, the player randomly chooses the movement ability of the Merlin™. The movement ability is selected from the standard movement abilities of the rook, knight or bishop or the movement ability of the Longbow™. Once the movement ability of the Merlin™ has been identified, the ability remains the same throughout the game. Selection can be conveniently made by drawing one of four tokens from a bag, each token having imprinted thereon a signifier of the type of piece the Merlin™ is to emulate. This token is kept secret by the player unless the player captures any opposing piece with the Merlin™ at any time after the Merlin™ is introduced on the board 100 or until the player uses the Merlin™ to make a “check-mate”. The token is not returned to the bag after the player's Merlin™ is captured.

As the game proceeds, a player may have occasion to castle, unless the rule variant does not permit castling. Castling is a special move involving a player's king and either of the players original rooks. It is the only move in chess in which a player may move two pieces in the same move turn. Referring to FIG. 3, one embodiment where castling is permitted, castling king side and queen side is illustrated for a 10×10 chess board 100. For example, when white castles king side, the white rook R in square j1 moves three squares horizontally to the left along rank 1 to square g1 and white king K in square f1 then jumps over the rook to land in square h1. In castling queen side, the white rook R in square a1 is moved four squares horizontally to the right along rank 1 to square e1 and the white king K in square f1 then jumps over the rook to land in square d1. Castling is only permitted if neither the king nor the castling rook has previously been moved, the squares between the king and the castling rook are not occupied by any pieces and the king is not in “check” prior to castling, does not move through “check” nor land on his destination square in which he would be in “check”. More specifically, a player cannot castle out of, through, or into “check”. It may be desirable for the player to move the king first to indicate to the opponent that the player is performing a castling maneuver. If the king castles through a square potentially attackable by an opponent's unrevealed Merlin™ and the opponent's unrevealed Merlin™ is a piece that could capture the king during the castling maneuver, the king is “checkmated” and the game is over once the opponent reveals the identity of the Merlin™.

As the game proceeds, a player invariably must move a pawn. Pawns are permitted to only move forward. Except when capturing another piece with a diagonal move, pawns may not move backward, horizontally or diagonally. Pawns normally move only one square; however, if a pawn has never moved, the pawn's first move may be one or more squares. For example, if a pawn has never moved, the pawn's first move may be one, two or three squares on the 10×10 chess board 100 illustrated in FIG. 3 for the black pawn P on square a9. From square a9 the black pawn P may move one square to a8, two squares to a7 or three squares to a6 on the pawn's first move. After the first move, the pawn is limited to moving one square.

In games where en passant is permitted, one embodiment of how en passant may function for the 10×10 chess board 100 shown in FIG. 3 is illustrated in FIG. 4. Because a pawn may move two or three squares on the pawn's first move, en passant may occur in two different situations. For example, if black pawn P at square e9 was to move three squares to square e6, white pawn P at square f6 would be able capture the black pawn P on white's very next move by moving to square e7 in an en passant maneuver. Note that if black pawn P at square e9 was to move two squares to square e7, white pawn P at square f6 would still be able to capture the black pawn P using a normal capture maneuver. Referring to the white pawn P at square e2, if the white pawn P at square e2 were to move two squares to square e4, black pawn P at square d4 would be able to capture the white pawn now at square e4 by moving to square e3 in an en passant maneuver. Note that if white pawn P at square e2 were to move three squares to square e5, black pawn P at square d4 would still be able to capture the white pawn now at square e5 by moving to square e3 in an en passant maneuver. Thus, whenever the initial move of a first payer's pawn takes the pawn past or horizontally next to a pawn of a second player, the pawn of the second player may on the second player's very next move capture the pawn of the first player.

The novel features will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon examination of the description. It should be understood, however, that the scope of the claims should not be limited by the embodiments, but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the wording of the claims and the specification as a whole. 

1. A chess game comprising an apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a playing area for displaying only two sets of chess pieces, the playing area consisting essentially of a 10×10 array of 100 spaces which the pieces occupy or move through; only two sets of chess pieces, the pieces of one set distinguishable from the pieces of the other set, each set of pieces consisting of 21 pieces, the 21 pieces consisting of ten pawns and eleven officers, the eleven officers consisting of a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, two non-standard pieces that start play on the playing area and have a movement ability permitting movement of three spaces along a rank or file or two spaces along a diagonal in any one move and permitting jumping over intervening pieces, and a wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area and may be introduced on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king by a player upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition, the wildcard piece having a randomly determined movement ability; and, a random selection device configured to randomly determine the movement ability of the wildcard piece, the random selection device comprising a plurality of selectable tokens, each token comprising an indication of the movement ability of the wildcard piece.
 2. The game according to claim 1, wherein the pre-defined condition occurs when an officer other than the king of the player is captured for a first time.
 3. The game according to claim 1, wherein the randomly determined movement ability is chosen randomly from movement abilities of the queen, the rook, the bishop, the knight, the pawn or the non-standard piece.
 4. The game according to claim 1, wherein the randomly determined movement ability is chosen randomly from movement abilities of a rook, a bishop, a knight or the non-standard piece.
 5. The game according to claim 1, wherein the wildcard piece cannot be introduced on to the playing area when the king is in check.
 6. The game according to claim 1, wherein a declaration of check is not required when an opposing player's king is placed in check by the wildcard piece when the wildcard piece's movement ability remains unrevealed to the opposing player. 7-19. (canceled)
 20. The game according to claim 1, wherein a declaration of check is not required when an opposing player's king is placed in check by the wildcard piece when the wildcard piece's movement ability remains unrevealed to the opposing player.
 21. The game according to claim 1, wherein the playing area is displayed on a came board and the chess pieces are physical pieces supported on a surface of the came board. 22-42. (canceled)
 43. A chess game comprising: a playing area for displaying only two sets of chess pieces, the playing area consisting essentially of a 10×10 array of 100 spaces which the pieces occupy or move through; only two sets of chess pieces, the pieces of one set distinguishable from the pieces of the other set, each set of pieces consisting of 21 pieces, the 21 pieces consisting of ten pawns and eleven officers, the officers including a king, wherein two of the officers are non-standard pieces that start play on the playing area, the two non-standard pieces both having a movement ability permitting movement of three spaces along a rank or file or two spaces along a diagonal in any one move and permitting jumping over intervening pieces, and wherein one of the officers is a wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area and may be introduced on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king by a player upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition, the wildcard piece having a randomly determined movement ability; and, a computer, an output device for the computer and an input device for the computer, the output device configured to display the playing area and the chess pieces, the computer configured to randomly determine the movement ability of the wildcard piece. 